Gift cards and certificates have gone from the shunned holiday faux pas to a trendy and desirable gift. Some can be more of a headache than a present, given that these gifts can be saddled with expiration dates and fees. That’s the last thing you want to gift your friends and family!
You can get a reprieve, though, if your state has its own rules governing gift cards. The best place to find info on the details of your state’s laws is your Attorney General’s website or office. After much searching, though, I was finally able to find a fairly current chart on the National Conference of State Legislators’ website. The great thing about this is that it links directly to a lot of the code that pertains to the rule. Many states are adding gift card regulations and most of them aren’t as straight forward as the above linked chart implies, but it’s a good place to start.
+ Summary of State Regulations- Summary of State Regulations
Arizona - Must disclose expiration date; Must disclose amount of fee and when fee is incurred
California - Expiration date prohibited; Dormancy fee allowed; all other fees prohibited
Connecticut - Expiration date prohibited; Service fees prohibited
Georgia - An expiration date must be conspicuous; Amount of dormancy/non-use fees must be conspicuously printed
Hawaii - An expiration date must be greater than two years and conspicuous; if no expiration date, valid in perpetuity; Service fees prohibited
Illinois - Expiration date or toll-free phone number to inquire regarding expiration date must be conspicuous; All fees, if any, must be disclosed conspicuously on the gift certificate
Iowa - No fee can be charged unless there is a contract
Louisiana - An expiration date must be greater than five years and conspicuous; No service fees; one-time handling fee less than $1 allowed
Maine - No limit on when owner can redeem gift certificate; No service fees; one-time handling fee and added-value fee allowed if disclosed in writing
Maryland - An expiration date must be greater than four years and conspicuous on a gift certificate; gift cards can be subject to an expiration date; Service fees cannot be charged until more than four years after gift certificate is sold. Gift cards are subject to service fees without limit
Massachusetts - A gift certificate expiration date must be at least seven years after issuance
Montana - Expiration dates prohibited; Service fees on gift certificates prohibited
Nevada - Expiration date or a toll-free phone number to inquire regarding expiration date must be conspicuous; No service fees within the first year of issuance; after the first year, all fees, if any, must be disclosed on the gift certificate
New Hampshire - Expiration date prohibited for gift certificates valued at less than $100; expiration date allowed for gift certificate valued at more than $100; Service fees on gift certificates prohibited
New Jersey - Expiration date must be disclosed to purchaser and conspicuously displayed on gift certificate
New York - Expiration date must be conspicuously disclosed to purchaser; Any service fees must be conspicuously disclosed to purchaser; no service fee before the 13th month after issuance
North Carolina - Reasonable dormancy fee may be assessed on abandoned property
North Dakota - An expiration date must be more than six years; Service fees prohibited
Oklahoma - An expiration date must be greater than five years; Service fees prohibited
Rhode Island - Expiration dates prohibited; Service fees prohibited
South Carolina - Disclosed expiration date allowed; if undisclosed, can’t be less than one year
Texas - Expiration date must be disclosed to purchaser; Any fee or charge must be disclosed to purchaser
Vermont - An expiration date must be greater than three years and conspicuous; Service fees prohibited
Virginia - Expiration date, toll-free phone number, or Web site to inquire regarding expiration date must be conspicuous; Requires all fees to be disclosed
Washington - Expiration date allowed when no money paid for gift certificate or when certificate is valid for artistic or cultural organizations and disclosed to the user; Dormancy fees are allowed if disclosed to the purchaser and if the card hasn’t been used in at least 24 consecutive months
Assuming you have a gift card, it is most definitely expired and the store will not accept it, what do you do then?
Many states have what are called escheat laws that apply to gift cards. Escheat laws will designate your unused gift cards as unclaimed property and require the retailer to send the unused funds to the state after a certain period of time has lapsed. Since most gift cards do not have a name associated with them, the state has no way to validate lost gift cards like they do with most other unclaimed property so your physical gift card is your proof of ownership. The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s website, for example, says to contact the state treasury to claim the value of your gift card. Moneystuffed’s unclaimed property article lists ways for you to track down how your state handles unclaimed property and the handy, dandy NCSL chart with the gift card rules also has a column for you state’s escheat laws.
Seems like a lot of hassle for that $10 gift card you got at your company’s holiday party? Maybe. Keep all this in mind the next time you go to pick up a gift card for family and friends. Read the fine print on the cards. Know your state’s laws regarding gift cards, their expiration dates and allowable fees. Don’t make the mistake of buying a gift card that will be more of a burden than a gesture of good will.
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on Tuesday, December 6th, 2005 at 1:00 am by Liz
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December 12th, 2005 at 8:13 pm
I found another list outlining state’s gift card rules:
http://www.consumersunion.org/pdf/gift-factsheet.pdf